Capstans



OC- 27, 1964 J. STANISLAO r-:TAL 3,154,260

CAPSTANS Filed Nov. 2, 1962 FIG. 3

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United States Patent Oiice 3,1542@ Patented 01st. 27, 1964 3354,26() CAPSTANS .cseph Stanislao, South Attleboro, Mass., and Edmund B.

Adamo, Morristown, NJ., assignors to Burlington Fabrics Corporation, New Yerk, N XY., a corporation of Delaware Filed Nov. 2, 1952, Ser. No. 235,ti36 7 Ciaims. (Cl. 242-4101) This invention relates to capstaris of the type used for advancing strands, such as threads and yarns, at controlled rates in apparatus of various kinds. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a novel capstan for the stated purpose, which offers advantages over prior similar capstans, in that it is not subject to injury or distortion under excessive load and can be more easily maintained in proper operating condition without likelihood of injury to the capstan or the operator. While the new capstan may be used for many purposes, it is particularly suitable for advancing an elastic thread under tension in an apparatus, in which the thread is covered by wrappings of yarn, and an application of the capstan to such use will, accordingly, be illustrated and described.

In the production of elastic yarns by winding covering yarns about an elastic thread, the thread is commonly drawn from a supply package by a rotating feed capstan, about which the thread is wound one or more times. From the feed capstan, the thread passes through the devices for applying the covering yarns and the covered yarn is then wound about a take-up capstan one or more times. The capstans are mounted on driven shafts and the take-up capstan is rotated faster than the feed capstan, so that the elastic core thread is stretched to a number of times its relaxed length as the covering yarns are wound upon it. From the take-up capstan, the covered yarn passes to the device, by which it is wound into a delivery package.

The capstans heretofore used in the apparatus described have been formed of a pair of dished disks secured permanently together with their convex surfaces opposed and in contact, so that the disks define a circumferential channel with sides converging inwardly, in which the strand is received and gripped. Because of their construction, such capstans sometimes become distorted under excessive load, so that they do not grip the strand properly, and, in the course of use, they become dirty by the accumulation of talc from the core and fibers from the yarns in their channels. Also, on occasion, the core breaks between the capstans with the result that the end Wound about the feed capstan laps about that capstan and, similarly, the covered yarn sometimes laps about the take-up capstan because of a break in the yarn beyond the capstan. In order to clean` the capstans to remove fibers and talc and laps of the core or covered yarn following breaks, it is necessary to stop the covering apparatus and clear the capstan channels by means of a needle or other instrument. In such an operation, a capstan may become distorted or the channel surfaces may be nicked or scratched to an extent such that the resultant surface irregularities will damage the core or yarn in contact with them. The cleaning of such capstans is a diicult operation and it involves some chance of injury to the machine operator aside from requiring that the machine be taken out of production.

The present invention is, accordingly, directed to the provision of a novel capstan, which overcomes the objections to prior capstans for the same purpose and is superior to such capstans in numerous respects. The new capstan is formed of a pair of dished disks, each having a series of openings concentric with its axis and defining a series of spokes lying between adjacent openings. The spokes are bent between their ends to form offsets and,

when the disks are placed with their convex surfaces opposed and their surfaces inward from the openings in contact, the offset of the spokes of each disk lie in the openings of the other and the two sets of spokes define a channel for the strand. The disks are held yieldingly in contact by spring means and, if the capstan is subjected to an excessive load, the disks move apart to prevent the capstan from being injured. The disks may also be moved apart by the operator, when the capstan is to be cleaned or a lap of the thread or the covered yarn is to be removed.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawing, in which FIG. 1 is a View in side elevation with parts broken away of a capstan embodying the invention and in operative condition;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 with the two disks of the capstan separated; and

FIG. 3 is an end elevation of the capstan.

The capstan shown in FIG. 1 comprises a tubular member or hub 10 which is adapted to be mounted upon a shaft 11 and held in fixed relation thereto by a set screw 12 threaded in an opening through the wall of the member and entering a keyway 11a in the surface of the shaft. The member has a section lila of increased thickness in which the opening for the set screw is formed.

A disk 13 having a central opening is mounted on the member 16 near one end and the disk has a dat central annular portion 14 which lies in Contact with a radial surface on the member at the outer end of the section 16a. The disk is held fast on the member by metal from the member which has been peened over the inner edge of the disk as indicated at 15. The disk is formed with a circular series of openings 16 concentric with the shaft 11 and the openings define spokes 17 beyond them. Near their inner ends, the spokes are bent away from the plane of the central annular section 14 of the disk to form offsets 17a and, outwardly from the offsets, the spokes extend in the opposite direction at au angle to the annular section 14 and terminate in a continuous rim 1S having an axial flange 18a.

A housing 19 is telescoped over the tubular member and is provided at one end with an internal flange 20 which has a sliding fit with the surface of the member at one side of the thickened section lha thereof. At its other end, the housing has an internal iange 21 having a sliding fit with the surface of the section 19a of the member and formed with an external axial tubular extension 22. A disk 23 is mounted on the flange 21 and the disk has a fiat annular inner section 24 which is seated on the extension 22 and is secured to the external surface of the flange 21. The disk 23 is formed with a circular series of openings 25 similar to the openings 16 and defining spokes 26 between them. Each spoke is bent out of the plane of the flat annular section 24 in a direction away from the housing 19 to form an offset 26a and, outwardly from the offset, the spoke extends at an angle to the plane of the annular section 24 and in a direction toward the housing 19. At their outer ends, the spokes merge with a solid rim 27 having a peripheral ange 27a.

The housing 19 and the disk 27 are movable toward and .away from the disk 13 fast on the tubular member 10 and, in the operative condition of the capstan, the housing and disk are held by yielding means with the annular section 24 of the disk in Contact with the corresponding section 14 of the disk 13 and the offsets 26a of the spokes 26 entering the openings in the disk 13. At the same time, the offset portions 17a of the spokes 17 of disk 13 lie Within ythe openings 25 of the disk 23. The yielding means for holding the disks in operative relation comprises a spring 28 which is made of a length of wire bent to form loops opening alternately in opposite directions. The ends of the wire are connected so that the spring is of generally cylindrical form and, between the ends of the loops, the legs of the loops are bent inwardly as shown at 28a. A wire ring 29 encircles the tubular member near the inner end of the thickened sec-tion 10a and is seated in a circumferential channel in the surface of the member. The wire ring forms a circumferential shoulder on the tubular member and, when the capstan is in operative condi-tion with the -inner annular secftions of the disks in contact, the bends 28a in the legs of the loop of the spring are in contact with the shoulder formed by the ring 29 and lie at the side of the shoulder toward the thickened section 10a. If it is desired to separate the disks, the housing 19 and Ithe movable disk 23 are moved axially yaway from the iixed disk 13 and, in such movement, the bends 28a of the spring slip over the top of the shoulder formed by the ring 29. To facilitate this action, the flange 20 on the housing is formed with an 4internal groove 20a receiving the ends of alternate loops of the spring. When the housing and movable disk have been moved away from the fixed disk so that the bends in the legs of the loops of the spring have passed beyond the shoulder 29, the spring is ineilective and unable to urge the housing and movable disk toward the xed disk.

When the new capst-an is in operative condition, as shown in FIG. l, the spokes on the disks which lie in alternation deline a channel converging toward the axis of the shaft 11 and ,a strand lapped about the capstan within the channel has sections alternately offset in opposite directions as the strand extends yalternately across and in Contact with the spokes on the two disks. By reason of such offsetting of alternate sections of the strand, the capstan grips the strand firmly so that there is little likelihood of slippage.

If, in the use of the capstan in the covering apparatus, a break occurs in the core or covered yarn and the core or yarn laps about the capstan, the lap canbe cleared away by the operator without stopping the apparatus. For this purpose, the operator grips lthe housing 19 and pulls it and the disk 23 lengthwise of the shaft until the disks 13 and 23 are operated as shown in FIG. 2 and the spring is inoperative. The channel defined by the spokes of the disks can then be readily cleared of the lap. Similarly, when the oapstan requires cleaning, the housing and movable disk may be moved away from the fixed disk so that the space between the disks is readily accessible and any foreign material therein can be readily removed. After tthe removal of a lap or of any foreign material between the disks, the capstan can be restored to operative condition merely by moving the housing and movable disk along the tubular member until the spokes 26a on @the movable disk enter the opening 16 in the fixed disk. Since the spokes and openings on the two disks are of the same form, no diflicult angular orientation of the housing and movable disk is necessary in order that the disks may be placed in operative relation. With the spring rendered ineifeotive as soon as the bends 28 in the loops of the spring have been moved past the shoulder 29 to the position shown in FIG. 2, it is not necessary for the operator to exert force to hold the disks apart during the removal of a lap or the cleaning of a c-apstan. The spring ,and shoulder are wholly enclosed so that the dirt cannot accumulate thereon Iand the spring is protected so that it cannot be injured. The thickened portion 10a of the tubular member has an external diameter slightly greater than the outer diameter of the shoulder formed by the ring 29 `so that the housing 19 may be moved lengthwise of the tubular member with no interference between the shoulder 29 and the ange 22.

We claim:

1. A capstan which comprises a tubular member, an annular disk encircling yand fast on the member, an annular disk loosely encircling the member, the disk having rims flaring from each other to define a channel, a circumferential shoulder on the member at one side of the disks, and a spring exerting force upon the shoulder and the lo'ose disk to force the loose disk against the fast disk and being compressed between the shoulder and the disks, the spring being movable over the shoulder away from the fast disk to release Ithe compression on the spring and render the spring ineffective and permit the loose disk to be moved freely away from the fast disk.

2. The capstan of claim 1, which includes interengaging parts on the disks holding them against relative angular movement.

3. The capstan of claim l, in which each disk has a flat inner marginal portion and a series of openings outward from the liat portion and separated by spokes connecting the at portion and the rim, the spokes being bent to extend out of the plane of the flat pontion and the spokes on each disk entering the openings in the other.

4. The capstan of claim 1, which includes -\a housing encircling the member to enclose the spring and connected to the loose disk.

5. The capstan of claim 4, in which the housing has an internal flange secured to the loose disk adjacent the 4inner margin of the disk and the spring bears against the shoulder and the inner face ofthe flange.

6. The capstan of claim 1, in which the spring is made of a wire bent to form loops opening alternately in opposite directions, the ends of the Wire being connected to give the spring a generally cylindrical form, the legs of the loops bending inwardly between their ends with the ends of such bends in the legs engaging the shoulder.

7. The capstan of claim 6, which includes a housing encircling the member and enclosing the spring, the housing having an internal flange at one end secured to the loose disk and the ends of alternate loops of the spring engaging the ange While the ends of the remaining loops engage the housing wall.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 975,869 1l/10 Jones 74-230.17 2,516,829 7/50 Reeves 74-230.17 2,740,246 4/ 56 Smith et al 74-230.17

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner, 

1. A CAPSTAN WHICH COMPRISES A TUBULAR MEMBER, AN ANNULAR DISK ENCIRCLING AND FAST ON THE MEMBER, AN ANNULAR DISK LOOSELY ENCIRCLING THE MEMBER, THE DISK HAVING RIMS FLARING FROM EACH OTHER TO DEFINE A CHANNEL, A CIRCUMFERENTIAL SHOULDER ON THE MEMBER AT ONE SIDE OF THE DISKS, AND A SPRING EXERTING FORCE UPON THE SHOULDER AND THE LOOSE DISK TO FORCE THE LOOSE DISK AGAINST THE FAST DISK AND BEING COMPRESSED BETWEEN THE SHOULDER AND THE DISKS, THE SPRING BEING MOVABLE OVER THE SHOULDER AWAY FROM THE FAST DISK TO RELEASE THE COMPRESSION ON THE SPRING AND RENDER THE SPRING INEFFECTIVE AND PERMIT THE LOOSE DISK TO BE MOVED FREELY AWAY FROM THE FAST DISK. 